LONDON — Doctors in Italy have designed a miniature dialysis machine for babies, used for the first time last year to save a newborn girl, according to a new report.

Usually, doctors adapt standard dialysis machines for babies, but that can be risky since the devices can't always be accurately tweaked. About 1 to 2 percent of hospitalized infants have kidney problems that may require dialysis, which cleans toxins from the blood when the kidneys aren't working.